WARNING: As the rewrite is still going on, there will be some dissonance between Haku and Hyoshiro's positions in this chapter and the previous ones they appeared in. To make a long story short, in the rewrite Hyoshiro and Haku go to Oreburgh mine to see what Cipher wanted (Bleach characters have been removed because I really don't care for Bleach anymore). Whether the Sanctuary at Sunyshore's activation will be shown I don't know yet.
Also, Haku's powers have been altered by Aeron (the author). So this will give you a firsthand look at them.
Giant references to Fate/Stay Night as well. It is likely more mechanics from the Fate series will be used in lieu of the Bleach mechanics.
Before you even ask why I'm suddenly continuing Shadows of the Demon before the rewrite is finished…well, Ashley Eon had Axel appear in one of her stories, and she's nearing the conclusion. Due to developments happening later in the plot of THIS story, I had to shift my priority list like crazy.
ASHLEY DO ME A FAVOR AND FOCUS ON NOVAS ARE SHATTERED STARS FOR A WHILE I NEED TO ADVANCE PLOT QUICKLY! DX
Undisclosed location
Rocky sat in a computer room, watching several bits of footage over and over across multiple screens. He looked very dismayed from what he was watching.
Gaea walked into the room, but Rocky did not turn to face her. In fact, he didn't seem to acknowledge her presence until the girl spoke. "You seem very interested in the Champion all of a sudden, you know."
One screen showed Ben attacking Luna with all three of his swords, and then the special sword they had prepared mysteriously shattered. On another screen, Ben attacked a Shedinja with several swift stokes, and then it suddenly was defeated. Various other screens continued to show footage of Ben. "These fights," Rocky finally began, "all show that guy defeating his foe or breaking their weapons in one blow when a few seconds ago he was doing no damage. I can't understand the nature of this power."
"So all of a sudden he's more of a threat than Nightblazer, who's been wreaking havoc on our defenses for the past few days and always escaping detection?" Gaea asked, but she was not unwilling to accept that possibility.
"I don't know," Rocky sighed, standing up. "But at any rate, we can't ignore Ben Roronoa anymore. Gaea, I've already ordered he be closely followed. Do you know where he'll be next?"
"He's moving towards Oreburgh," Gaea replied, pointing at a screen that didn't show the footage of Ben. "So what do you want to do?"
"Luna's still injured from fighting Ben…but the rest of us are still ready to fight. All five of us will attack Ben," Rocky decided boldly. "We will stop this problem here and now. Gaea, inform Dordondii, Shooter, and Frostelius. We won't show any mercy."
"Is all of this even necessary?" Gaea asked just as she stepped outside the doorway.
"…we can't be too careful. And I'm not a practical thinker like some other people," Rocky replied. "Just get to it, okay?"
Oreburgh Mine
A hand burst from the rubble as Haku dragged himself out. "Argh…" He dusted himself off and checked if anything was badly hurt. "Hyoshiro!" he shouted. "Are you alright?"
From another pile of rock, Hyoshiro shoved a boulder aside and also checked himself for injuries. "Yeah. Nothing's broken too bad. It's a good thing I froze the rocks the instant before they hit. And you?"
"I created a shield to protect myself," Haku replied. "It held for a while, but I really chose the wrong one. The one I picked makes the body take damage if it does, so the fact that I'm still alive is a miracle."
"Just be glad you're alive," Hyoshiro replied, standing and helping his colleague up. "We need to find that Sanctuary quickly." They looked upward and found that they were in a giant chasm, with many tunnels leading into and out of a void. "It's a good thing it's only us. Normal humans couldn't make it back."
"That being said, it looks like the damage to Oreburgh will be lasting. This mine may end up being closed down for good." Haku looked around regretfully, eyes passing over every inch of crumbled rock. "Not to mention I can't even think about how many Pokémon just lost their homes."
"It gets worse," Hyoshiro suddenly realized, eyes wide. "The mine extends under a large portion of the city. Do you realize what that means?"
"Yeah," Haku replied, nodding grimly. "If we don't do our job right and cause another disturbance in the rock around us, not only will we be buried, but the entirety of Oreburgh will be destroyed."
"But there's one chance. If we can activate the Sanctuary's power in time, it will repair the environment around it. Hopefully it can reinforce the entire underground area. We must succeed on this; Cipher's defeat is not the only thing we need to aim for now. Come on!" Hyoshiro ordered, pivoting on his heel and making a quick stride away.
The surface
Rocky stood in front of the entrance to the mine, probing for a trace of the two that had reportedly been eliminated. When he found them, he looked rather alarmed. "What's wrong?" Gaea asked as Rocky stumbled backwards.
"This is impossible…they survived!" Rocky breathed. "How much can they take?"
"In any case, we cannot simply leave them ignored. Shall we intercept the boy or take down the Origin Captains?" Dordondii asked.
"Well, while y'all're goddamn obsessed 'bout that Ben kid, seems t' me like we should kill them first," Shooter replied, pointing at the mine. "Am I right?"
"I have few arguments with that. Let's go," Rocky replied, moving forward into the cave.
"I do hope you'll reconsider." All five froze in their tracks when they realized the boy in green standing behind them. To their horror, they realized Hanna Bladesinger and Eddie Adreguidez stood at either side of him. The rage straight from the North Pole in Aeron's eyes was enough to make blood clot in their throats.
"Well, if it isn't Aeron Solo!" Frostelius laughed, raising his bazooka and loading another shell in. "I suppose we have time to start o-"
"No, you idiot!" Rocky grabbed Frostelius and pulled him away. "Out of all the opponents we can take on, Aeron Solo is the worst! And also, there's something off about him! It's best if we run!" With that, he dived into the darkness and threw a hand out, collapsing rocks behind them over the entrance.
Those were sheared apart a moment later, followed by a wild green flash. "I will no longer pretend you know nothing about what happened to Axel," Aeron declared, as a bright green shaft of light completed itself in his hand. "Buryūnaku (Brionac)!" The green lance planted itself firmly the middle of the group, scattering them as air exploded in all directions. Forming another lance in his hand, Aeron charged Dordondii and thrust it at his chest. Dordondii tried to send a gust to repel Aeron, but the air around the lance spiraled with a retaliating gale of its own in the opposite direction, ripping through Dordondii's attack.
Frostelius' ivory-colored bazooka flashed with white energy, and he hurled a notably larger missiles with a great icy trail. "You will not be able to just blow away my Super Missile! Its propulsion is too great for something such as that!" Frostelius triumphantly laughed.
"Then all I need to do is use a different method. Shinsei Bakuha!" Aeron fired a pulse of green energy into the missile, exploding it prematurely and sending many more at Frostelius. Shooter, meanwhile, morphed his gun into a minigun (contrary to the name, it is HUGE) and began to spin it up, but the noise of the gun spinning up alerted Aeron's attention, and he swung Tsubasa no Raioh, crackling with golden electricity. "Ikazuchi Chikara!" Shooter managed to fire a few bullets, but the lightning forced him to halt his assault so he could make a run for it.
"What is the matter with that niño? He was not acting so furiously when I met him days ago," Dordondii noted.
"Hard to say, we can't know what Nightblazer's doing now either," Rocky replied grimly. "But this is nothing like the Solo we thought we were going to fight!" He vaulted over the next attack, while glancing worriedly at the ceiling. "He's showing no sign of restraining himself. Even if they say Solo's as coordinated as he is…at this rate, he'll bring the entire place down on us!"
Further down
Hanna and Eddie, who had slipped by the battle without being noticed, dropped between ledges further and further downwards. "It looks like Haku and Hyoshiro are fine," Hanna noted, "but be careful, Eddie, You don't want to cause another cave-in."
"When do I cause cave-ins?" Eddie protested, vaulting to another wall and gripping the edge of the rock before freefalling to grab onto another outcrop.
"Not normally, but Cipher has been messing around. Also, while I can tell where the rock is stable, you can't. I'll let you know where all the weak points are." One telepathic message exchanged between the two. "You good?"
"Hold on that thought…" Eddie muttered, suddenly landing on another overhang and walking in, turning on a flashlight. "Something's strange about this place…" He looked around suspiciously before his eyes flashed with an indigo light. "Washimokushi (Eagle Vision)!" The entire world faded away into a completely dark blue transparency. Contours of the terrain around were reduced to light blue outlines, while Hanna appeared stark white behind him. Further down, he could see Haku and Hyoshiro, also in white. However, what Eddie was paying attention to was the area further down the tunnel. "I wouldn't be able to notice this with only a flashlight…" His eyes reverted to their normal color. "Hanna, I think we may have just walked into the Sanctuary!"
"What? How can you tell?" Hanna peered inside, but didn't fully enter the tunnel.
"You can't remember Aetherian architecture if it were in front of your eyes anymore or something?" Eddie pointed at the walls and ceiling. They looked unnaturally smooth, save for some curling decorative designs in the rock. "No human tool could have made this, for sure. Can't you see how they look as if they were formed this way?"
"Now that you mention it, yeah…" Hanna wondered how she hadn't noticed with some annoyance before walking out. "I'm going to find Haku and Hyoshiro, so you continue on, alright?"
"Got it," Eddie replied, turning back with glowing indigo eyes once again. Up ahead, it looked as though there were numerous traps that were invisible to even an Aetherean's naked eyes. It's a good thing I have Eagle Vision, he thought as he began to scale a pillar and carefully lifted himself above the pristine rock floor. Underneath, he could see numerous shining crystals, which to his eyes were emitting red spherical fields. Don't wanna fall in there, he thought to himself. Looking forward, he saw there were numerous ones also embedded in the walls and pillars.
"Pain in the neck…" Eddie considered just destroying them, but then decided against it and threw himself towards a small part of the wall not covered by the magic fields. His foot struck the rock and pushed away from it, propelling him to another pillar, which he clung onto for a second just to build up enough momentum to throw himself back onto the floor on a safe area. "This is gonna be a workout," he muttered, looking around at the other red fields around him.
A chandelier just happened to be hanging a distance away, but Eddie saw that the crystals that made it up also generated magical fields. "Do they REALLY insist on making this so hard for me?" he groaned, taking a leap to the ceiling and jabbing his blade into it, suspending himself above the dangerous floor. Gazing about, he saw another safe area at the right wall, and he leapt to it. A small piece of rock dislodged and fell into one of the fields, causing Eddie to worry that he would lose any handhold he had, and he hurriedly leapt to the last pillar, carefully lowering himself to the ground. "Glad that's over…"
"Did you enjoy your free running?" At this moment, Haku stepped from behind the next corner, badly bruised, but already healing.
Eddie gave him a look of disbelief. "How did you get here so fast? I thought you were below us!"
"We found a secret passageway leading up here," Hyoshiro explained, walking out after Haku.
"SO I DID ALL THIS FOR NOTHING. GOD." Eddie stalked off into a corner and pouted…so much that they knew he was really, REALLY exaggerating.
Hanna was the last to enter the hall, carefully closing the secret passage so that it only looked like a blank wall. "Glad you made it safely, Eddie…though you're getting slow." Eddie gave her an annoyed look, and Hanna did not pursue that subject further. "Aeron's currently fighting five of the Admins by himself to buy us time. Let's reactivate the Sanctuary-and hurry!"
It was probably a massive mistake to dive headfirst into a fight that someone like Aeron Solo was involved in, but the moment he saw the fighting, Ben hurled himself straight at Dordondii and slashed, causing the Admin to have to flee quickly. "Aeron!" he shouted to get the attention of his best friend's brother.
"I don't know why you're here, Ben, but stand back!" Aeron shouted, forming another Brionac spear in his other hand.
"Never!" Ben retorted, before Gaea's blades which slashed through everything like butter came down upon him. Shusui's heavy blade flicked up just in time to block them, but everyone was shocked when Ben smacked them away and ran at Gaea with more speed than he had used before. "I'm not going to let a friend die this time!"
"Not going to…" Aeron slowly realized something about what Ben said. "Are you telling me someone's died who was on our side?"
Ben did not respond, and instead began to beat back Gaea's attacks with a greater ferocity than any human had been seen to have before. Gaea immediately recognized who he was. "You're…Ben Roronoa?!"
Rocky, also hearing the name, seemed to panic for a moment, then composed himself. "Everyone! Retreat! We can't win under these circumstances!"
"Say what?!" All of the admins gave him bewildered looks, but Rocky did not answer any complaints and hurled multiple rocks at Ben and Aeron, then hurled himself into the abyss below. Gaea followed him without much delay.
The other three, however, still stayed back to fight. "I don't know what got their spines all soggy, but we don't need their help t' defeat you!" Shooter declared, hurling a stream of bullets at Ben and Aeron. Both of them dodged the entire volley, and next thing Shooter knew, Ben was bearing down on him above, and Aeron was swinging his sword at his back. Frantically, a ring of fire burned itself in between his aggressors and the admin. It was only a temporary reprieve, though, and both weapons cut through the flames immediately, slashing Shooter across the shoulder and abdomen, with him barely being able to keep his vitals from being struck. Ben's foot shoved off the ground as he pursued, and Aeron hurled himself in the same direction he was going in to attack Frostelius.
Frostelius tried to generate ice armor to protect himself from Aeron's onslaught, but immediately Aeron thrust his blade through the joints, shattering it in seconds, and jabbed repeatedly at Frostelius' vitals, preventing him from aiming correctly and forcing him to hurl small ice blasts which Aeron easily parried with bursts of wind from his left hand. Realizing victory was impossible, the Admin turned on his heel and fled, hurling ice behind him to impede Aeron for a few moments.
"Frostelius?! You too?!" Dordondii demanded, before realizing Aeron would target him next, and likewise threw himself off into the abyss. Shooter, not wanting to fight alone, did the same.
"You're not getting away!" Aeron roared, but Ben suddenly caught him by the arm, preventing him from taking a step forward.
As Aeron glared at Ben with the utmost fury, Ben ignored the worst of it with a great effort and began to talk. "I don't know what's going on, or why you're so infuriated, but before you go on your roaring rampage of revenge, listen to me. Your fighting could've just killed everyone above us. Marth and Ike found the ground to be terribly unstable around here, and even they can only do so much to keep the whole place from collapsing. If we keep making false moves, we'll bring the entire city down upon ourselves." His face was absolutely pleading, as Aeron being this angry did not mean anything good. "I'd totally rip them apart as well, but we need to consider what would happen if we're not careful."
"Then we'll need to defeat them in a way that will avoid destroying the area," Aeron reasoned. "I think I know how we can fight all out without much concern. Come on, Ben, we're following them!"
When the Admins walked into the room, the Origin Captains were rather worried at first, but quickly drew their weapons with greater confidence as they realized their opponents were completely worn out. "Shucks…Rocky, ya got an idea?" Shooter asked.
Rocky shook his head. "We have virtually no way of getting out of this situation. I don't see us getting much aid, either. The best thing we can do is throw ourselves at them with all our might and hopefully damage the main crystal."
"Do you have any idea what you'll do if you try that?" Hanna immediately took a step forward, both hands on her blade's hilt. "There'll be no way of repairing the damage done to this place. Even if our fight doesn't bring the whole city down, anything like a wild Pokémon definitely could. Or have you resorted to terrorism?"
"Ha! That only would serve to create the greatest of art!" Frostelius laughed, but was silenced by a glare from all the Origin Captains, as well as Rocky and Gaea.
Rocky looked around and then noticed a massive statue, standing so tall the head couldn't even be seen. Molten rock made up the long legs, and the torso, also of rock, expanded almost ridiculously as it moved away from the legs. Two giant fists hung from arms extending to who knows where. I'll topple that thing! he decided, and took a step forward, extending a hand to exert force on the statue, pulling it steadily towards them. The statue was incredibly hard to move, however, because of its immense size.
Gaea saw what he was doing and sprang into action, activating her blades and swinging them at the Origin Captains to repel them. "Is this really the best you can do?" Eddie taunted, diving between the blades and drawing his sword, while Hanna, Haku and Hyoshiro had to stay behind and keep the blades back.
"Now, everyone! Attack the base of that statue!" Rocky shouted. The Origin Captains stared at him in horror, and a moment later, bazooka shells struck the base and burned away at it or froze it and shattered, slowly gnawing away at the statue's feet.
Hyoshiro whipped his sword around his body, letting a silver chain extend. "Sit upon the frozen heavens, Hyorinmaru!" he shouted, and began to try and strike down their attacks with ice blasts. However, Dordondii blew the Admin's shells just out of the way of the ice blasts, and the Admins dodged them as they flew by. Next, Hyoshiro tried to create a wall of ice just in front of the statue, but it was hastily constructed and fell quickly by the suppressive fire.
Rocky's hand came down in a swift chop, and the statue began to topple, its foundations completely crumbled. However, as it began to fall, a blur of green halted the statue in its descent. "Wait, he caught up that quickly?!" Rocky groaned in dismay.
Unfortunately for the Origin Captains, it didn't look like Aeron was having a very easy time holding the statue up. It was slowly forcing him back down towards the ground with each passing second. Ben, having also darted into the room, blocked all the attacks coming at Aeron, but that didn't do anything to lift Aeron's load.
Suddenly, there was an orange light, and the statue began to right itself on its own. Everyone stared at it, unaware of the cause for this bizarre phenomenon. As soon as the statue stood upright, orange energy coursed into the foundations of the statue and regenerated the rock. The statue would not fall so easily again, from the pristine appearance of the rock.
"What was that phenomenon just now?" Rocky wondered, gazing at the rock intently as though something would spring out of it.
"It appears the Elemental of Rock still resides in this Sanctuary, and is starting to wake up," Haku commented after a long silence. "But at any rate, we cannot allow this kind of damage to keep occurring. Ben, Aeron, can you ward them off?"
"You can count on us," Ben nodded.
"Good. Hanna, Eddie, Hyoshiro, I leave activating the Sanctuary to you," Haku declared, and without paying attention to Eddie, he raised his left hand, shaped into a claw, to his chest.
"The world is made completely of swords."
Black mist began to swirl around his left hand, as a chilling breeze swept through the room.
"Possessing wills of iron, and hearts of glass…"
The Admins began to worry, and immediately attacked, but Ben and Aeron halted their advance quickly. Haku continued to gather energy in his hand.
"Thousands of battles have been fought across the world."
Shooter tried to load his gun, now a bazooka, but Ben thrust Shusui forward and slashed through the shell, causing it to explode. Shooter was thrown to the ground, and his gun skidded across the floor.
"Never once have they yielded to each other…"
A great column of black energy swirled up into the air around Haku. Rocky spied Shooter's gun and dove for it, then pointed it straight at Aeron, its shape morphing into a sniper rifle. Without even bothering to look into the scope, he fired.
"Never once have they understood each other…"
The bullet sheared into Aeron's right hand, but didn't go out the other side. Aeron had to bite his lip hard to keep himself from screaming, and his sword fell from his grasp. Haku watched with great concern, but he could do nothing at the moment.
"They fight all alone each day in the world of swords."
Throwing his left hand to the side, Haku scattered the black mist all across the room, veiling the entire room, as well as Hanna, Hyoshiro and Eddie. They would not be affected by what he was doing next. Rocky gazed at this with awe before remembering himself and running at Aeron, knocking the fallen Tsubasa no Raioh as far away from Aeron as possible while he was distracted by the pain.
"And therefore, this world has no meaning."
While the other Admins stared in awe at the transformed room, Ben began a furious counterattack to drive Rocky away from Aeron. Haku raised his right hand to his chest, mirroring the pose he had been making earlier. Bright light began to gather in it, suddenly making the spot that was the darkest in the room a few verses ago now the brightest spot.
"From the very beginning, it was certainly made of swords."
With these final words, the chant was complete. Haku thrust his hand upward, shooting the bright white streak into the air, into the depths of the darkness. As it traveled, strange lines appeared to be etched in the walls and floor, randomly swerving at right angles but then swinging back to their original course, and white particles were scattered through the air. But eerily, stark white swords could be seen stabbed into the ground, as though they were a memento to the swordsmen who had wielded them in lieu of a gravestone. The light disappeared into the emptiness above them, then suddenly gave off a radiant flash, making the swords glow and white spread through the entire area which had been turned black a moment ago.
"Kaosu Bureido Wakusu (Chaos Blade Works)."
A crazy dance of white and black clouded everyone's senses. When they finally could see again, what met them was a sphere composed completely of black and white swords, hilts all arranged to point to the top of the sphere, and blades arranged to point to the bottom. Beyond the sphere of swords was a shocking chaos of white and black. There was no gravity or matter to be seen except themselves, their opponents and the swords, and light and shadow didn't even seem to be so distinct anymore.
Haku's eyes were closed, and he was muttering a strange language no one knew (okay, maybe Aeron). Particles of white and black flew from his hands to the swords, making them pulse with their opposite color. The Admins considered attacking him, but it looked as though no one was able to move at the moment.
Finally, Ben broke the silence. "Aeron, what's happening right now?"
"We have been pulled into a Reality Marble," Aeron replied almost naturally. When Ben gave him a confused look, Aeron continued. "It's a plane of existence completely different from our world which only Haku has and can permit access to. Haku took us here so we couldn't cause any more damage, since we'll be in a different world. As for what's happening now…think of Haku as the game master who's sending us to the place we're going to battle."
"But if we're in another world, does that really matter?" Ben persisted.
"Well…truth be told, this Reality Marble differs from most in that it needs to be pre-prepared with a landscape and such. Haku probably didn't prepare one before this fight, but now he's doing so. A hard concept to understand, but I'm sure you'll get it."
"Oh, okay…" The entire concept was still confusing to Ben, but he could ask Marth and Ike later. "Say, Aeron, are you going to be alright? Your right hand's still bleeding, and it doesn't look like you brought Tsubasa no Raioh in."
"I could regenerate it if I wanted…" Aeron glanced at his hand and winced. "It looks like the bullet is still there, though. If I regenerate with it still in there, it'll be extremely painful-and besides, my body won't be able to regenerate 100% while it's still there." With an almost arrogant smirk, however, Aeron glanced at the Admins. "Even so, I don't think I'll have too much trouble with them."
"That's what you thi-" Frostelius began, but he was interrupted by the swords glowing in a monochrome that was strangely more vivid than real life. "What?!"
At that moment Haku's eyes opened. "Reality Marble, take shape!" he shouted, and all the swords shattered in another blinding flash. When they finally opened their eyes again, they were in a bizarre resemblance of a canyon, except once again, everything was black with white outlines.
Ben and Gaea found themselves further away from the rest of the combatants. "So I'll be fighting you…" Ben drew his swords and leveled them at Gaea. "Axel couldn't finish the fight he had with you previously. I guess I'll have to finish it in his place." Gaea raised her arms, and her blades reprojected, but she felt much less eager to fight than her opponent.
Haku and Aeron stood together against the other four. "What's going on here..." Rocky looked clearly annoyed and worried. "This wasn't in our intel either!"
"I deleted most of your intel after the last incident. That you recovered most of it was unfortunate," Aeron explained. "But thankfully, this was one of the things that didn't return to your databases."
"So…we basically have to fight against the two of them, right?" Frostelius asked somewhat hopefully.
"Well, after Solo wrecked us all, I'm a bit doubtful," Rocky replied, glancing at Aeron's right hand, which was stuffed in his pocket. "But I shot a bullet so that it would lodge itself in his right hand. His fighting style only relies on his right hand when he performs one-handed motions, so I think it's safe to say I've taken something important from him in this fight. Guys, do me a favor and actually listen to me for once, and we might w-"
Suddenly, Aeron kicked off the ground and flew through the canyon straight at Rocky. "I'm sorry, you're too smart for your colleagues to be easy to defeat. I will be taking you on myself." Before Rocky could argue, his left hand smashed into Rocky's face, and he continued flying further down the canyon.
Finally, Aeron suddenly pulled up, leaving Rocky to smash backfirst into the ground, plowing up rocks as he went. The moment these rocks were struck, their white outlines burst, leaving them to dissolve into black mist. Rocky stood up and dusted himself off, then ran a hand over his aching back to see if anything was broken. "So that was your plan, was it? To separate me from the rest?"
"You looked like the most troublesome out of the bunch, so of course I'd have to isolate you," Aeron replied, emphasizing with his left hand raised in the air in Rocky's direction. "Honestly, I never would have thought anyone would think of a strategy like that-disabling my right hand and disarming me as such. To boot, I can't use any of the powers I've displayed so far without Tsubasa no Raioh, nor can I call for it now that we've been separated on a dimensional scale. You really thought this out."
"I didn't know we'd end up here, but it was convenient," Rocky replied. "But why are you playing up that you can't use any of your abilities?"
"I said I can't use any of my known abilities." Aeron held up his left hand, fingers wide open as if he were grabbing something. "But the only reason why you haven't seen me use my left hand is because my right hand is the more effective one when using Tsubasa no Raioh. My left hand can be…a little wild."
To Rocky's utter shock, Aeron's hands clenched around something...but what was it? It was completely invisible. Only a faint shimmer of winds could be seen as Aeron swung the invisible weapon in a wide arc, then leveled it at Rocky. "But that doesn't mean it's powerless, does it now?"
The other Admins watched dumbstruck as Aeron flew off with Rocky. "What a dramatic exit," Dordondii commented finally, before returning his gaze to Haku. "However, you do not have nearly as much to show us, it seems."
"And what makes you say that?" Haku asked calmly, not taking his eyes off of his opponents for a second.
"You refer to this place as 'Chaos Blade Works.' It seems chaotic, that is true. But there are no swords at all, nor does it make one think of anything being created except this landscape. A beautiful backdrop, but it does not live up to its name."
"Then this all is a complete farce," Frostelius laughed. "Against the three of us, this guy will stand no chance."
"You're right. Three on one is a very difficult battle indeed." Haku's mouth twitched upwards in a smirk. "I'll hold back as much as possible."
As he spoke, the entire landscape changed. Black polygons began to swirl around the combatants, then white lines arced through them and formed various swords (and a few spears, but we don't care about spears)-talwars, katanas, claymores, rapiers …you name it, they appeared, all hanging over the combatants' heads as though they were going to drop at any moment.
A black flamberge dropped into Haku's outstretched hand. "You asked for swords…well, here they are. If you still have your pride as fighters, you should get rid of it right now before fighting me."
A long silence passed as the terror of the situation struck the Admins. They remained unsure of what to do for so long, Haku pointed his flamberge at them, and swords began to rain upon the Admins by the dozens. They completely had no idea what to do, and thus swords slashed through them repeatedly without them even lifting a finger.
Finally, Dordondii tried to blow the swords off course, but they did not veer from their course at all. Haku struck the shimmering air and threw it off course with no trouble, then rushed in to attack Dordondii. Shooter began to fire at Haku, but the wielder of the Reality Marble called more swords down, knocking the bullets off course. Dordondii frantically tried to kick away Haku's flamberge, but was quickly struck in the back by a talwar and felled.
Haku kicked off the cliff behind himself, and brought his blade down on Frostelius, who hastily created ice armor around his body and shielded himself from the blow-barely. Shooter tried once more to gun Haku down, but before he knew it two swords implanted themselves in his chest. The gun clattered from his hands, and the next second a claymore lanced it through, ripping it in half. "Hey! My-" Shooter groaned and slumped over as if having given up already. "My gun…"
The next moment, Haku's flamberge shattered Frostelius' armor and left a dark red gash on the admin's blue snowcoat. Out of desperation, Frostelius jumped into the air and fired underneath himself, blowing himself into the air and forcing Haku backward. Undaunted, Haku responded by sending three more swords flying at the Admin at angles that he could not dodge all at once. "Have you had enough?" Haku asked, throwing his flamberge to the side and shattering a burst of flame Shooter had fired at him. "But then again, I don't think I'll accept 'yes' as an answer." At that moment, a slender sword landed in his hand and morphed, the guard becoming slanted towards the hilt, and the hilt becoming circular rather than a rectangle with rounded edges. The sword tapered itself from the guard to the tip at the same time, making something that didn't resemble a sword at all.
White and black swirled together in his left hand, forming his bizarre "bow" that looked more like a nine-branched tree than anything. Strings of white and black wove themselves around the end of the modified sword as Haku placed it in the space between two of the branches. "Are you prepared?"
Aeron's left hand mimicked pointing a weapon at Rocky, but still nothing could be seen. His hand still looked totally empty. The bizarre sight made Rocky wonder if Aeron was bluffing. But with that weird shimmering in the air…I can't take chances. "You intend to fight me with what exactly?" he finally asked.
"I might as well tell you; it doesn't change much," Aeron replied. "I definitely have something in my hands. But you won't be able to see it. I've sheathed it in special wind magic-it would be translated to 'Invisible Air' in our language. Whatever I'm holding is wrapped in several layers of high-pressure air. They distort light to the point where it looks like I'm not even holding anything."
"And here I thought he would just pour his abilities into offense…" Rocky growled and raised his arm, preparing to strike.
"Prepare yourself!" Aeron's foot shattered the ground as he took a flying leap, just as Rocky generated a giant rock and lobbed it at him. The invisible weapon sheared through the rock just as easily as Shiruba-Getsu would, much to Rocky's shock. Even more dismaying, while sparks flew from Aeron's weapon as it swept through Rocky's defenses, they did nothing to reveal the nature of his weapon, only seeming to fly in each direction. Stray rock shards also did nothing to reveal his weapon's dimensions.
An invisible weapon is much more troublesome than one would think at first glance. Knowing a weapon's length will let you know if you are within its range or not. Knowing its width will let you know how hard it strikes and how easily it can parry attacks. Knowing its trajectory will present to you exactly how to dodge it. And, of course, even knowing what kind of weapon an opponent is using will reveal their tactics fairly easily. But the Invisible Air would allow for none of these.
Not helped by the fact that Aeron's battle style had completely changed. Rocky noticed he was making wider swings and twirling his weapon about in circles to attack and defend, as though it were a performance rather than a battle. Compared to the small, accurate movements Aeron had performed before, knowing what his battle style had been like before did nothing.
Aeron's invisible weapon flashed from upwards, then the sides, then he spun around and slashed at Rocky. The Admin found he had to constantly take steps backwards in order to ensure his safety, and even then he could feel the magnitude of the swings.
While searching for ideas, Rocky suddenly thought of creating a giant rock and lobbing it at Aeron. A crude strategy, but I can at least detect how far it penetrates into the rock. He raised his hand, and the giant stone began to manifest itself as he fired smaller rocks at Aeron to keep him occupied.
"Do you really just plan to lob stones at me all day? I'm starting to get annoyed," Aeron commented as he spun his weapon around in his hands, sending all the rocks flying. "And bigger…isn't always better." His blade made one wide arc. Rocky was standing about five meters away.
Instantly, the giant rock was slashed in half before it even finished materializing. This threw Rocky totally off guard. Wait…how did he do that if he was so far away, and a few moments ago his weapon couldn't hit me when I was standing a meter away?
"Fighting with a person Axel would be much more interesting," Aeron commented, closing the distance with slow but long strides. "You seem concerned about the attributes of my weapon, but just like this, I shattered everything you thought you knew about it. I'd go into more lengthy explanations, but there are points where revealing too much information sets your own gravestone." With these words finished, his weapon raised above his head, seemingly poised for the death blow. "They always say wind cannot blow down the mountain, tear apart the stone wall, all those grand things. It looks like they were wrong." With these finished words, he brought the weapon down, with green energy bursting into view from the force of his attack.
Rocky had no choice but to just duck; he couldn't counterattack, and now Aeron apparently had a long range attack. Sure enough, the area above him burst into black polygons and white lines, out of existence. Aeron's feet broke into a run, and his weapon came swinging like a guillotine upon Rocky. Somehow, Rocky's hands came up, and the rock gauntlets he had were struck by the weapon…and didn't falter.
Aeron looked surprised, but before he could do anything, Rocky shoved the weapon away. He was sure of it-it was definitely a blade. Also, he had held it at a point close to Aeron's hands, meaning if it were a spear, Aeron was holding it very close to the tip. Likewise for an axe. Both of these, though, were awkward ways to use either of the weapons. I've got it! His weapon is a sword! Probably straight, too, or it doesn't taper much.
Aeron himself was a bit surprised by this development. He managed to block my sword without getting a hand cut off? he thought, staring intently at the blade covered in the Invisible Air. I guess he wasn't as bad as I thought…that, or I've been going easy on him the whole time. No, both of them are the case, which led to my sword being stopped…Aeron found an enthusiastic smile spreading across his face. "Looks like you do have some skill. I guess I can push harder now!"
Aeron continued pressing forward with his invisible sword, striking tremendous blows one after another, and Rocky carefully avoided each one, knowing at least the basics of sword skills to be out of the way even when Aeron moved his sword in random bizarre patterns that neither one was truly sure existed. Aeron's sword then came from the side, but Rocky took one desperate gamble, and his hand shot out and caught Aeron's hand. Quickly, Rocky's fist drew backwards and hurtled for Aeron's face.
Aeron's stunned expression suddenly disappeared as his foot whacked Rocky's ankle to the side, sending the Admin toppling off balance and under Aeron's arm. As Aeron's arm twisted, Rocky's hand was wrenched free, and Aeron gave him a rough kick into the wall. Rocky barely managed to roll to the side as Aeron unleashed another slash which ripped the canyon wall to pieces. Staring at the destroyed cliff, Rocky narrowed his eyes. "If I can't see it…it's probably either wind or some kind of magic…or both, since Invisible Air is wind-type magic. It doesn't look exactly like a metal blade made this…"
"No time for analysis, I'm afraid!" Aeron shouted, as another attack slashed apart the canyon wall, raining the "rocks" down on Rocky. As these weren't normal rocks (hence the quotation marks), Rocky could do nothing but run, as he wouldn't have time to generate his own rocks to shield himself. However, the moment he did so, Aeron was running to the point where he'd be right in front of Rocky, and his sword was already prepared to launch another deadly attack. Rocky thought he saw Aeron's entire body vulnerable to attack, however, and both of his arms came sweeping from both sides at Aeron.
It seemed like Aeron tripped at that moment, but that in itself was something that spelled doom for Rocky. As Aeron fell, he disappeared completely from Rocky's range, and as Rocky had already made his move, he suddenly was powerless to stop Aeron's sword from coming at him from the legs. They did not penetrate all the way, but instead send him sprawling into the ground.
Watching him, Aeron stood up again and took his right hand out of his pocket-and with his invisible sword, slashed it himself. "Found it," he declared, tossing the crushed bullet to the side. As Rocky watched with something of horror and disgust at Aeron cutting himself just to remove a bullet, it already began to regenerate. "What? You think I'd really do that if I couldn't regenerate? This whole time, I was tensing the muscles in my right hand so I could find the bullet and remove it."
"Why now of all times? You could have probed for it at any time up till now with methods that probably work better." Rocky still knew, though, that something big and terrible would be coming in a moment.
"I think this fight has been going on for too long. Your friends are being defeated as we speak. I will close the curtain now." Aeron placed both hands on his sword, and the air began to glow bright green. Then it dispelled en masse at a rapid pace, revealing a glowing green European-style sword with a bizarre guard that resembled wings. The sheer amount of wind sent Aeron flying at Rocky faster than one could dodge, the green comet in his hands surging in for the strongest attack.
The sounds of metal shattering again and again rang through the canyon. Ben Roronoa was fighting with swords like he never had before.
Gaea's blades were nothing like swords, and would not be shattered so fast. They could no longer penetrate his swords, but the emotions that had welled up within him made it clear he could not do with them-he would break them immediately. As soon as swords appeared behind him, he pulled them from the earth and smashed them into Gaea's blades, striking them far away to her sides and going in directly with Wado Ichimonji in his mouth, with her barely even staying ahead of the dancing swords.
Gaea frantically tried to cross her blades in front of her, but Ben merely responded by crossing his swords and drawing his head back. "Oni Giri!" he shouted, swinging all three at once. Gaea's blades managed to block it at the one point in which all three blades meet at the same point, but they struck with so much force that she was hurled backwards, though unharmed. Ben threw himself at her straight away, forcing his blades against hers so hard that at that moment, two of Gaea's blades shattered.
While Gaea stared at this with shock, Ben proceeded to keep striking at all of her blades, destroying every single one of them in an instant. The moment she tried to generate more, it was too late-Ben destroyed them in an instant as well. "The energy frequency of your blades has been memorized," Ben explained. "You won't win now!"
Giant earth spikes created themselves behind Gaea, and she pointed straight at Ben, letting all of them fly at him. Undaunted, the aura of a dragon began to emanate from Ben. "Tatsu Maki (Dragon Twister)!" he shouted, spinning around faster and faster to create a tremendous cyclone. It threw the earth spikes to the sides, then sucked up Gaea and hurled her far off into the canyon, with Ben running after her...
…and catching her?
"I don't think I'd have the guts to kill someone just yet," Ben commented, laying a surprised Gaea on the ground. "I've won this fight anyway. But tell me now…what have you found about Axel's whereabouts?"
Gaea shrugged. "He's just on Mt. Coronet. We can't detect a trace of him, only a ton of ruin in his wake."
"I see…then, do you mind if you show me exactly where he's gone?" Ben held up his Pokétch and began to bring up the map.
"Wha-do you expect me just to sell out our defenses just because you didn't kill me?!" Gaea gave him a disbelieving stare.
"Nah. Just…" Ben showed her the map of Mt. Coronet and moved a finger over it, leaving a bright green line where he had traced. "Trace out the route for me, okay? I don't need elaborate maps of your plans."
"Alright, but this'll take a minute…" Gaea took the Pokétch and began to trace across it.
Ben warily watched her to see if she'd pull any tricks, but she just gave him the Pokétch back. "Uh…thanks…?" He hurriedly inspected it and put it back on.
"Are you that worried I'd try anything underhanded?" Gaea laughed. Then her face grew gloomy and she looked back down the canyon. "But then again, I don't even know why I just did that…do I really feel that guilty about what happened at the Battle Frontier?"
Before they could contemplate anymore, the world suddenly began to dissolve rapidly into black and white polygons just in time to reveal Haku lowering his arm, his bow disappearing and all three of his enemies having bizarre swords impaled in them that dissolved along with the world, and Aeron holding an unfamiliar green sword that, with multiple strong gusts of wind, disappeared from sight, while Rocky lay on the ground with a massive gash. The fight was definitely over.
The polygons faded from view to reveal they were back in the Sanctuary, now with the crystals around the room blazing white. "The damage is being repaired," Hanna told Aeron without seeming to pay much attention to the others. "We won't have to worry when we leave."
"That's good. Oreburgh isn't going to collapse today," Aeron sighed with relief. "I think it's time for our opponents for the day to leave, isn't it?"
"You're just letting us go like that?" Rocky narrowed his eyes, suspicious.
"I don't see the need to kill people that have come to their own slaughter unknowingly," Aeron replied, walking towards the exit and picking up the forgotten Tsubasa no Raioh from the ground. "But don't expect to survive next time. And you'd better hope not to run into Axel, either."
"So if we find Nightblazer and defeat him, Solo will still take us down…" Rocky sighed, stood up while Gaea supported him, and traced a line in the air, opening up a circular portal to an area filled with mottled purple fog. "We're going, everyone. We're going to have to strengthen our defenses a whole ton more."
As the portal closed, Ben looked back to Aeron, explained his plan to him, and handed Aeron the headphones. "So why were you so angry at that time?"
"You weren't the only one who felt that pulse of energy from Axel. I felt it too, but it was off," Aeron explained. "It seemed more like the absolutely pathetic Axel from the really early years of his life than that Axel which I knew a week ago. That Demon Lugia had reduced him to that…" He handed the headphones to Hanna, but his hand took a bit to unclench. "It just is an absolute insult to me."
"How did it happen, though? Axel having black wings and all…" Ben wondered, gazing into the headphones crystal as if they would tell him the answer.
"I'm not quite sure how his powers suddenly regressed like that," Aeron admitted. "That being said...what happened to the Battle Frontier must have been beyond terrible for him. I don't know if you've ever noticed, Ben, but Axel…he actually constantly suffers from depression. It's something that started before I met him, and kept going up to this day. What happened at the Battle Frontier, then, would only deal out the emotional pain done to him in spades."
"Axel-depressed?! How does that even-he never even resembled depressed in any way!" Ben tried to think hard about any time in which the word "depressed" could even be applied to Axel, but came up totally blank. Of course, then there was that one jar he saw back at Axel's house on the table…
"Human medication does a lot more for him surprisingly than what we had back then," Aeron replied, taking Axel's headphones back from Haku and handing them to Ben. "And oddly enough, his being depressed made him the guy to go to if you wanted advice for problems but didn't want it to be given too harshly. But at the end of it all, he still hasn't recovered from that one day many years ago when he lost his first love interest by his own recklessness…"
"Why didn't he tell me any of this…?" Ben wondered, gazing at the headphones and feeling sort of depressed himself.
"He probably thought you couldn't handle it. And also, he has the tendency to shoulder his own problems by himself." At this point, they had reached the opening of the mine, and Aeron's line of sight was pointed straight at Mt. Coronet. "Ben. We've crippled the Cipher Admins in this fight. If you want to go to Mt. Coronet to where Axel is, as we will be doing, now is the time."
"Yeah!" Ben nodded. Marth and Ike, who were outside the entrance waiting for his return, saw the new determination in his eyes, and they turned to each other, agreeing that at long last, things looked hopeful for the future.
Niko, who also had been waiting with Marth and Ike, dropped onto Ben's shoulder and took the headphones. "We've gotten practically everyone's by now! This should be enough!" he proclaimed.
"Alright! Let's head to Mt. Coronet!" Ben shouted, thrusting a fist into the air, and the group headed off to their final battle.